Micro Greens?

Green sprouts everywhere, including a massive bounty of weeds. Too bad no one has “properly” marketed wild, organic microgreens at $20 per pound to the retail consumers. Some of the weeds that grow abundantly are edible, and is eaten in other cultures. Maybe I need to consult with some marketing gurus and develop a new market….. hmm.

Microgreen Sans Weeds = Beets

After weeding, you can see a row of baby beets. It’s not so easy to identify the vegetables until you study the row. It’s the hint of a row as you put your face near the ground and look up where the row should be, looking for a slight difference in coloring and shape. This is where you also realize having a perfectly straight row, which I don’t have, is really helpful.

Kale and its companion marker, Nasturtium

Kale (a brassica) prefers cool weather and generally is planted in summer for harvest during the fall and winter, even after snowfall. For my kale experiment, I will harvest at the baby greens stage. Brassicas are prone to many kinds of pests. Certain companion plants are reputed to be helpful in repelling pests. You can see nasturtiums I planted – round leaves in dull green – which also acted as row guides among the weeds. There are no holes in the kale, yet.

CSA potato from 2013

The potatos experiment took root and the leaf clusters are showing nicely. These were the organic, Hawthorne Valley CSA potatoes that I didn’t get to eat last fall, and sprouted eyes in the kitchen.

Saved Sage

The penchant for saving strong plants continues to ensnare me. Sage and savory began to resprout from last year’s root, and now has a new home in the herb garden. The roots of these herbs are a mast of sturdy tangled mess.

Carrot Row

The carrot row is starting to shape up.  About 60 feet in, it met its match with a 2 foot wide zone of dill. It’s called dillweed for a reason! It would be easy enough to till the dill sprouts, or maybe I can let it grow a little more and use it to refill my herb jars.